Removing Evils and Innovation

Aa’isha (radi Allahu anha) said: The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “Whoever innovates into this affair of ours that which is not from it shall have it rejected.”

[Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim]

In another narration of Muslim, “Whoever does an action that is not from this affair of ours shall have it rejected.”

[Sahih Muslim]

Commentary:

The scholars have said regarding this hadith: ‘It is the scale of the outward actions and the hadith of ‘Umar that is in the beginning of the book (HaD-161), “The rewards of actions depend upon the intentions” is the scale of the inward actions because actions have an intention and an illustration.’ The illustration is the outward action and the intention is the inward action.

And from the Benefits of this hadith:

1. Whoever innovates into this affair of ours (i.e. lslam) that which is not from it shall have it rejected even if he had a good intention. Due to this benefit, it is appropriate that all the innovations are rejected back to their owner even if he had a good intention.

2. Whoever does an action – even if it has an origin in the legislation, but it is done in a fashion that was not ordered, then it is rejected due to the second narration in Muslim.

So due to this, whoever sells something prohibited then his sale is void. Whoever prays a voluntary prayer without reason during a prohibited time then his prayer is void. Whoever fasts on the day of the Eid then his fast is void, and so on and so forth. That is because all of these have not been ordered by Allah and His Messenger, so they are void and rejected.